Understanding how iNaturalist data affect GBIF and its limitations : A guide to key considerations
department or school: Science, Faculty of
department or school: Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Department of
data provider: DSpace
creator: Xue, Luyi
issued: 2025-08-18T17:16:34Z
issued: 2025-05
description: The emergence of iNaturalist has been highly beneficial to scientists by sparking interest in biodiversity and enabling a wide range of community and scientific contributors to generate large, recently documented observational datasets. iNaturalist publishes all research grade observations to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) on a weekly basis and has become the third-largest data contributor to GBIF. iNaturalist offers several advantages, including facilitating connections between researchers and citizen scientists by providing a convenience platform and encouraging broader public participation in biodiversity research. However, iNaturalist also presents several limitations that should be carefully considered when sharing or utilizing its dataset for scientific research. Researchers must pay close attention to issues related to data quality, such as the photo quality and the accuracy of geographic coordinates. In this paper, two case studies are discussed to further illustrate the existing drawbacks of using iNaturalist data. Based on these case studies, several recommendations are proposed to help researchers minimize bias in their studies and assist observers in improving data quality. Addressing these concerns is essential for ensuring the objectivity and reliability of research outcomes.
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/91942
note: 1 Understanding How iNaturalist Data Affect GBIF and Its Limitations: A Guide to Key Considerations Luyi Xue Major in Environmental Science Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science Faculty of Science, University of British Columbia Dr. Michael Lipsen, Linda Jennings May, 2025 2 Table of Content 1. Summary 4 2. Abstract 4 3. Introduction 5 4. GBIF and iNaturalist 6 4.1 GBIF 6 4.1.1 GBIF history 6 4.1.2 How GBIF data uploads from different publishing institutions 7 4.1.3 Brief Overview of GBIF 8 4.2 iNaturalist History 9 4.3 How Database like iNaturalist uploads to GBIF 9 5. Advantages of iNaturalist 10 5.1 Engagement with Students 11 5.2 Engagement with Citizen Science 12 5.3 Facilitation of Scientific Research 13 6. Drawbacks of iNaturalist 14 6.1 Location Coordinates in Observation 15 6.2 Citizen Science Observation Bias 16 6.3 Research Grade Identification 19 6.4 Copyright Release 20 6.5 Photo Quality 21 6.6 Rare Species Identification and Coordinate 22 7. Two Case Studies 24 7.1 Case Study 1 - A Study of the Genus Biden 24 7.2 Case Study 2 - The Drawbacks of iNaturalist brought by Finn McGhee 26 3 8. Suggestions of Using iNaturalist 27 8.1 Things will affect the correctness of research 27 8.2 Recommendations when Using iNaturalist 28 9. Conclusion 29 10. Acknowledgements 30 11. Appendix 31 11.1 Tables and Figures 31 11.1.1 Tables 31 11.1.2 Figures 36 11.2 Glossary 41 12. References 45 4 1. Summary 1. An overview of GBIF and iNaturalist and how they are related. 2. The advantages of using iNaturalist for students, citizen science and scientists. 3. The drawbacks of iNaturalist data and how they can affect scientific research. 4. Two case studies highlight some drawbacks of iNaturalist. 5. Precautions of using iNaturalist for scientific research. 6. Suggestions for users when using iNaturalist to make their observations more useful to researchers. 2. Abstract The emergence of iNaturalist has been highly beneficial to scientists by sparking interest in bio…
has type: Report
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0449748
language: eng
peer review status: Unreviewed
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Undergraduate
is part of: University of British Columbia. ENVR_V 448
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/91942